University of Massachusetts raises tuition and fees 3%

Monday

Jul 17, 2017 at 12:01 AMJul 17, 2017 at 5:15 PM

Stephanie Murray/State House News Service

BOSTON -- The University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees voted to increase tuition and fees by an average of 3 percent for in-state undergraduates on Monday -- a move that will cost the average Massachusetts student $416 more than the previous academic year.

Across the UMass system, the average in-state undergraduate will pay an average $14,253 in tuition and fees this year. It is the third year in a row the university has increased tuition for students. Last July, the trustees voted to increase tuition and fees by 5.8 percent -- a hike that cost the average in-state undergraduate student $756. The trustees broke a two-year tuition freeze in 2015 when they voted to increase tuition by 5 percent.

The five-campus UMass system had more than 74,000 students enrolled during the 2016-17 academic year. Some 17,700 students earned UMass degrees in 2017 -- the largest graduating class in UMass history. The board approved the increases during a meeting in Worcester.

"When recommending tuition rates, our goal was to ensure affordability for our students, maintain excellence in our academic and research enterprises, and preserve our competitiveness and the demand for a UMass education," Umass President Marty Meehan said in a statement. "I'm very proud of the work we've done to minimize impact on students and their families. This plan puts UMass at the low end of the scale of tuition increases among our private and public peers in the region, underscoring the fact that UMass remains an exceptional value for a world-class public research university."

The tuition and fees increases will impact students across four UMass campuses: Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth and Lowell. The trustees approved tuition and fees increases for the UMass Medical School in Worcester last month because classes for some medical students start in May.

UMass will receive roughly $513 million in state funding this year, an approximately 1 percent increase over last year's $508 million state appropriation. The university requested $538 million from the state for the 2018 fiscal year. The Senate proposed $534 million, close to its initial request, but state budget negotiators opted for a $513 million appropriation put forth by the House. Gov. Charlie Baker signed the $40.2 billion state spending bill on Monday.

"The budget signed by the Governor today - and the vetoes he made - are again much more about what we as a Commonwealth can't do or won't do than what we could do," Noah Berger, president of the left-leaning MassBudget, said in a statement. "This budget won't protect UMass students from tuition and fee increases, it doesn't make the kinds of major investments in education that could significantly expand opportunity, and it doesn't provide the funding it would take to fix our transportation systems. Meeting those challenges would require correcting fundamental flaws in our tax system, such as that our highest income residents currently pay the smallest share of their income in state and local taxes."

The five-campus university system will operate with a $3.3 billion budget for the 2018 fiscal year which began July 1. The $513 million in state funding makes up roughly 15 percent of the budget. UMass predicts a 3.3 percent increase in expenses across the system this year, totaling $105.6 million.

"The decision to increase tuition is never made lightly," UMass Board of Trustees Chairman Rob Manning said in a statement. "This is a modest and reasonable increase that will require the campuses to continue to cut costs, but ensures that we maintain excellence, access and affordability."

To pay for that $416 increase, an in-state undergraduate student working an $11/hour minimum wage job in Massachusetts would have to find about 38 hours more hours of work -- a couple hours shy of a 40-hour work week.

The university anticipates the tuition increase approved Monday will generate $32.5 million in additional revenue. To ease the burden on students, the university plans to channel 30 percent of those new funds, about $9.7 million, into financial aid. In total, the fiscal 2018 UMass budget directs a "record" $347 million to university-funded financial aid, according to a university statement.

"This budget clearly maintains our commitment to university-funded financial aid to ensure that qualified students, regardless of their means, have the opportunity to access and complete a transformative UMass education," Meehan said in a statement.

UMass Amherst Student Trustee Derek Dunlea, a 21-year-old senior political science major from Randolph, was the only trustee to vote against the tuition increase. Trustee Robert Epstein abstained, Dunlea said.

"When I ran for student trustee, I said that I would vote against and fight against tuition and fee increases. This was basically the most direct measure I could do against them in sense of voting no," Dunlea said. "Part of it, as well, is a bit of my view about how the board communicates changes and fee increases to the UMass community as a whole."

Dunlea said he understood the board's decision to delay the vote on tuition from June to July to see the state budget appropriation, but argued waiting until mid-July to announce tuition rates "leaves families in the dark" about how much they can expect to pay for tuition.

"By delaying the meeting, they're delaying by another month when families will know how much they're paying on their tuition bill," Dunlea said.

Across the four campuses impacted by the tuition hikes, UMass Amherst students will pay the most. In-state undergraduates at the flagship university will shell out $15,411 in tuition and fees and out-of-state students will pay $33,477. UMass Lowell will charge in-state students $14,800 in tuition and fees and out-of-state students will pay $31,865. At UMass Boston, in-state students will pay $13,828 and out-of-state students $32,985. UMass Dartmouth students will pay the least -- tuition will cost $13,571 for in-state students and out-of-state students will pay $28,285.

"We're having increase on increase," Dunlea said. "If you add on that $700 increase from last year, I'm paying over a thousand dollars more for my education per year compared to when I came into the university. It's pretty easy for that to build up."

Meehan said in a statement that this year's budget requires "continued belt-tightening" and the UMass system will continue to implement cost reductions. The university has taken "ongoing efficiency and effectiveness measures" that are expected to save nearly $300 million over the next decade.

In addition to a tuition hike and cost-cutting measures, UMass Amherst students may see bus routes slashed.

The Pioneer Valley Transit Authority, which operates buses in the western part of the state, will meet in Springfield on Wednesday to discuss limiting or eliminating 16 bus routes to ease a $1.7 million deficit. The state's fiscal year 2018 budget funds regional transit authorities at $80.4 million, nearly $6 million less than what the regional transit authorities recommended and $2 million less than allocations in the last two budgets, the News Service reported.

The Five Colleges, the body that represents UMass Amherst, Amherst College, Hampshire College, Smith College and Mount Holyoke College, sent a letter to the transit authority saying it may explore private transportation options if routes that students rely on are eliminated. Students who attend UMass Amherst may take classes at any of the Five Colleges as part of their tuition and often depend on PVTA bus routes to get to the other campuses. According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, the Five Colleges have provided the transit authority with $5.5 million over the last decade.

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